Sign the Wall to Let the City & BJC Know We Want to Keep Forest Park Intact

It looks like many groups are organizing in opposition to the city’s deal to lease part of Forest Park to BJC, allowing for construction above ground. One group is planning a demonstration each weekend:

PRESS RELEASE

‘The Signing Wall’ will be here every week-end for people to come and sign, until a final decision is made by the Protectors of Forest Park and the Mayor, Darlene Green and Jim Shrewsbury.

We hope the number of participants will grow, as more people gather, who are opposed to any loss of Forest Park. We hope you will come and sign ‘The Wall’.

Across from Barnes Hospital, above the underground garage. 3:00pm til 6:00pm

The silent protest; with yard signs, letters to the Editor, blog comments, websites and news articles by the media have done a great job exposing the proposal..

It is time to be seen and heard.

Vocal demonstration at 5:00pm

‘The Wall’ is a gathering place to conjoin resources and energy. To unite enmasse, on common ground.

There will be a vocal demonstration at 5:00pm; all are invited to join in.

We hope, publicity will be the key the opposition needs, to trash this proposal and agree, collectively,

Forest Park will be Forever, Always.

Never an amputation.

Sincerely,

The Neighbors of BJC

Indeed it is Mayor Slay, Comptroller Darlene Green and Board President Jim Shrewsbury that will make the final decision. To date both Green and Shrewsbury have been vocal in their questioning the deal while not outright rejecting the concept. If you haven’t told each of them yet how you feel, now is the time to act. Below are links to their email forms as well as their office phone numbers.

Mayor Slay, (314) 622-3201
Comptroller Darlene Green, (314) 622-4389
President Jim Shrewsbury, (314) 622-3287

It wouldn’t hurt to contact the folks over at Forest Park Forever to let them know you want to keep the park intact as well.

Another group out there is the Citizens to Protect Forest Park. You’ve probably seen their green & white yard signs saying in bold letters, “Our park is NOT for sale.” Their website is protectforestpark.org. Another website on the topic is CWE Greenspace.

We do have an issue with how to fund the on-going maintenance of Forest Park. The last thing we want to do is have gone through 10+ years of work and planning and millions of dollars just to see it deteriorate in the same amount of time. The solution is not a secret deal to lease well-used park land for construction, at least not until alternatives have been publicly discussed and ruled out. Leasing this land to BJC should be a last resort measure, not a first step.

– Steve

Why Is the Mayor Driven Around in a Canadian-built Car?

Many of us have seen Mayor Slay and other officials in the typical “American” car, the Mercury Grand Marquis or its near twin, the Ford Crown Victoria. We look at these cars and think, “oh a big American rear wheel drive car.” Well, think again. The Grand Marquis & Crown Vic are assembled in Canada, not the U.S.

And what about the trendy new Chrysler 300? Is that anymore American than a Toyota Camry? The 300, along with related vehicles the Dodge Charger and Magnum, are also assembled in Canada. And Chrysler is a division of the German firm, DaimlerChrysler AG. This makes Chrysler and Doge products no more American than Mercedes, Toyota or Honda — all of which are foreign companies with assembly plants in the U.S.

Honda, for example, recently announced plans to open its sixth plant here. A primary difference between foreign companies DaimlerChrysler and Honda is the latter is not unionized whereas the former employees members of the UAW, the United Auto Workers. Reports indicate the non-union assembly plants generally keep pace with prevailing wages & benefits from those represented by unions, if anything just to keep the employees happy and the unions out.

I am a strong believer in buying local yet I bought a car with 100% Japanese content. This was not on purpose, I have no problems with many cars assembled by American workers. The problem is what we are being offered in this country. If you want a small & efficient 4-door hatchback you will not find one assembled on these shores. The one new exception is the Dodge Caliber although it is a good 700lbs heavier than my Scion xA and less fuel efficient as a result.

General Motors is in big trouble. Their market capitalization this morning was just over $16 billion, a third the value of relatively small Apple Computer. Ford is not doing too much better. Both offer some great cars, in other countries. In Toronto this week I saw a great looking Chevy hatchback that is not available in the U.S. (Chevy Optra). Before I bought my Scion I considered a Chevy Aveo — a small car built in Korea.

I understand the mayor of Denver has a Ford Escape hybrid for transportation, a far cry from the former mayor’s Town Car. Perhaps Slay should look at getting something a bit more American (or locally assembled) and a bit more fuel efficient.

– Steve

Auto Choices Getting “smarter” in 2008

It’s official! DaimlerChrysler’s adorable city car, the smart fortwo, will be officially imported at the beginning of 2008! The cars will be sold through new dealerships under agreement with UnitedAuto Group, headed by the legendary Roger Penske. The smart is currently available in the U.S. through a couple of methods. One is a gray-market car that is technically a used car from another country that has been modified so that it is allowed to be sold here. The second is similar though a bit more formal, the models being sold through dealerships with ZAP (disclosure: I’m a very minor shareholder in ZAP). Last month I spotted one of the gray-market smarts at Bevo Mill, see post.

The problem with the two current choices is you pay nearly $30,000 for a car that is intended to sell for $15,000. The officially imported model will not be the current design which dates back about 10 years. Instead the U.S. will get a new design along with the rest of the world. We will not, however, be getting the more efficient diesel engines. Hopefully by the time of introduction diesels will be more acceptable here. The new low-sulpher diesel being phased in this year may also speed this along. It is reported the cars are expected to sell in the $15K range when introduced, a reasonable price for a 2-seater capable of 50-60mpg.

smart’s dealerships are quite interesting and compact. We’ll see if the importation group will require stand-alone dealership in order to get a franchise. If so, I’d really love to see one of these urban-friendly dealerships in St. Louis. This would actually be a good fit on the edges of downtown.

Thanks to GreenCarCongress for the info on the announcement. For more information and to see a cool video of the current smart in the U.S. see smartusa.com

Toyota is expected to have it’s third generation Prius on the market around the same time.

– Steve

Revised Prediction for St. Louis Gas Prices

Back on December 30th I predicted that by the end of 2006 “a gallon of regular gas will exceed $3.00, not due to a natural disaster or terrorism.” I think that prediction might turn out to be a major understatement. At the time regular gas in St. Louis was around $2.20/gallon.

Yesterday when I left my house for dinner regular at the two stations near me was $2.69/gallon. Just a couple hours later the price was $2.88/gallon (shameful I didn’t have my camera with me). Today I noticed the price has settled to $2.84/gallon. This is all for regular. Premium fuel, like my former Audi required, is now over $3.00/gallon. Places in metro East are seeing regular in the $2.94 – $2.99/gallon range.

So today I’m revising my estimate, I think we’ll see regular gas at $3.50/gallon before New Year’s Day 2007. And I don’t mean some spike brought on by a hurricane or such. Just normal everyday pricing.

What we must remember that the cost of this increase is not simply what we pay at the pump. While the average driver may be able to pay another $750-$1,000 for gasoline in 2006 than they did in 2005 that aggregate cost will mount. Many will be unable to juggle this increased expense with their incomes. Far suburban areas will continue to find it challenging to attract service workers because it simply will not be cost effective for someone to drive 20 miles for a minimum wage job.

Our entire economy is dependent upon oil, cheap oil.

Employers & employees located nearest to mass transit will be the best off. Ironically, it will be more and more costly to operate our bus system as fuel costs surge. Increased revenues from new riders and rate increases will not keep pace with fuel prices. Meanwhile, our government will likely continue road expansion projects rather than providing efficient mass transit where needed to keep the economy moving.

We may elect more Democrats to Congress in November but I don’t think that will help much, if any. Democrats have controlled the White House & Congress and still failed to do anything about sprawl, dependence on oil and auto fuel standards. Republicans are more cozy with oil interests but Democrats don’t seem willing to make any real change, presumably out of fear of not getting elected.

Locally things will be interesting as fuel prices increase. The City of St. Louis will actually be positioned well to deal with a slowing economy. I hope we can actually utilize some of our industrial buildings to once again manufacture goods to replace those we can no longer cheaply import from China. Our retail storefronts should again begin to open up as locally made goods are sold locally. Local farmers markets will see continued growth as the big grocery chains struggle to stock shelves with reasonably priced merchandise that has to be shipped cross country.

People will naturally gravitate together in the core. Sprawling suburbs with massive McMansions will become liabilities. Owners of those 3 acre lots may have to resort to growing veggies where they have the manicured lawn now.

This is not going to happen overnight but it has already started. The shift is taking place. How quickly the economy changes is hard to say as is how rough it will be.

– Steve

Smart ForTwo Spotted in St. Louis

The cute European Smart ForTwo has made its way to St. Louis in limited numbers. While attending the Bosnian Festival in the Bevo neighborhood today I spotted the lovable little car.

The Smart ForTwo has been around since the late 90s and has been a hit all over the world, including recent sales in Canada. Daimler-Chrysler (aka Mercedes), the cars designer and maker, hasn’t felt it would do well sales wise in the U.S. I think it is just what we need in this country.

I was able to chat with the owners for a while before we all decided it was too hot to stand around on an asphalt parking lot. The couple, in their gray years, had seen one in Paris and decided they had to have one. They’ve had theirs about 3 weeks.

A local car dealership (Suntrup Ford Kirkwood) is apparently able to get a few cars in each month and is selling them as used vehicles due to regulations with U.S. vehicles sales laws. Separately, a California company known as ZAP (Zero Air Pollution) has received authorization to begin legally selling new Smarts in the U.S. In both cases look to spend about $25K for the two passenger car.

The owner was quite happy with the attention his car was getting. He was even more pleased when I told him I was a stock holder in ZAP that is starting to legally import the cars (yes, I am a geek investor). He said he gets around 40mpg in town and around 60mpg on the highway. This is a regular gasoline car — no fancy hybrid stuff (where would you put it?). Europeans and those Canadians get even more efficient 3-cyclinder diesels.

Rumor sites indicate Mercedes might begin to officially import the Smart around 2009 after a redesign. The dealerships are very cool and urban as they emphasis the small space the car consumes by stacking them vertically in a glass tower — no big parking lots. See the official Smart website here and more of my pictures on Flickr.

Mitsubishi, which makes some of the engines used in the Smart, also has a new minicar out called simply the i. It is basically a 4-door version of the Smart, again with a rear engine layout and a highly space efficient interior. Right now it is for sale in Japan only but it will likely spread into Europe. For more information see GreenCarCongress or the official press release.

More choice in the minicar market will be an upside to rising gas prices. And just for comparison, my quite small Scion xA is nearly five feet longer than the Smart ForTwo! In the space it takes one Chevy Suburban you can park two Smarts with room to spare for a few scooters.

– Steve